On-page SEO: a checklist that isn't stuck in 2015

Most on-page SEO advice online is a fossil. Keyword density, exact-match repetition, stuffing synonyms into alt text — none of it reflects how search engines evaluate pages today. Modern on-page work is about making a page unmistakably the best answer to a specific query. Here is the checklist that still earns its place.

Start from intent, not keywords

Before touching the page, search your target query and read what ranks. Google is showing you what it believes searchers want — format, depth, and angle. If the results are comparison tables and your page is a philosophical essay, no amount of optimization closes that gap. This is the same discipline as researching keywords by intent, applied at the page level.

Craft the title like ad copy

Your title tag is the ad Google runs for you. Lead with the concrete promise, keep it under about 60 characters so it doesn't truncate, and make it specific enough that the right visitor clicks and the wrong one doesn't. The heading on the page can be longer and more expressive — they serve different jobs.

Structure headings as an argument

H2s should read like a table of contents someone would actually want to follow. Search engines use them to understand coverage; readers use them to decide whether to stay. If your headings only make sense after reading the paragraphs, invert them.

Answer the query in the first two sentences

Readers and answer engines both scan the opening before deciding whether to keep reading or to quote you. A page that spends three paragraphs building up to its actual point loses both audiences — the reader bounces, and the answer engine has already moved to a page that led with the answer. State the core answer plainly first, then use the rest of the page to justify and expand on it, not the other way around.

Link internally with intent

Every page should send readers somewhere useful next: the deeper guide, the related service, the natural next question. Descriptive anchor text ("technical SEO foundations", not "click here") tells both readers and crawlers what awaits. Orphan pages — with no internal links pointing at them — rank poorly for a reason.

Sweat the unglamorous details

One H1. A meta description written for humans. Descriptive image alt text. A canonical URL. Clean, readable URLs. Fast load — if the basics are shaky, fix the technical foundation first. None of these wins alone; together they compound.

Frequently asked questions

Is keyword density still a real ranking factor?

No, not in any way worth optimising for directly. Modern systems evaluate topical relevance and how well a page answers a query, not how many times a phrase repeats. Writing naturally for the topic covers this by default.

How long should a page be for on-page SEO purposes?

As long as it needs to be to answer the query completely, and no longer. Length is a byproduct of thoroughness, not a target — a page padded to hit a word count reads as padded to both readers and search engines.

Do meta descriptions directly affect rankings?

Not as a direct ranking signal, but they affect click-through rate from the results page, which is what makes them worth writing well rather than leaving to an auto-generated snippet.

How many internal links should a page have?

As many as are genuinely useful to the reader at that point in the page, not a fixed count. A forced link that doesn't fit the sentence is worse for both readers and topical relevance than no link at all.

What's the single highest-impact on-page fix for a thin, older page?

Rewriting the opening to answer the query directly in the first two sentences, and matching the page's format to what currently ranks. Both are usually higher-leverage than any technical tweak on a page that's structurally sound but poorly targeted.

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